readjusting to life in paris

The past couple of weeks have been crazy.  So busy.  There hasn't been a normal.  But hopefully things will start to settle down and I'll be able to find a routine again.

Everything was crazy because I was in Germany for 11 days, then my parents came 3 days later and stayed for 6.  It was so awesome to have them here, and I loved every minute of it (except the minutes that I spent stuffed up in the Palace of Versailles - that's a whole other story, however) but it will be nice to have things return to normal.

This morning we took a class trip out to Poissy so see le Corbusier's master piece: la Villa Savoye.  It's a place I've learned about so many times so it was very cool to see it in person and to be able to walk the ramp and stand in the roof garden myself.

I've finished uploading my photos from Germany to Facebook, so you can view them there.  As things start to settle down I'll hopefully have time to go through all of the photos I took while my parents were here and recount a few of our adventures.  We had lots of really great times and I have a ton of memories that I won't soon forget.

Also, just for fun, here's the cartoon that I had to draw in Berlin.  The assignment:  24 hours of my real life in 36 frames of comic strip.  Enjoy :)

photos from germany

Photos will be posted here.  I've got tons of school work to catch up on, so it'll take a while.  Please be patient, but enjoy!

weimar, germany

Yesterday, I left Berlin and arrived in Weimar.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour train ride, which I slept through most of.  I wanted to stay awake and get some work done, as well as enjoy the view, but it was so comfortable and I just passed out :)  I did wake up at one point and saw a couple of castles.  Germany is so beautiful.

Once I arrived I met up with my friend Peter, who is studying engineering at the Bauhaus University here in Weimar.  So he showed me all around the town.  It's a small town (actually about the size of Holland, my hometown) and compared to Berlin, it feels tiny.  But it was really enjoyable to wander through the farmers market and parks and such.  It didn't take long to see all of the sites so we ended up hanging out in the park for a while, before heading back to Peter's dorm for dinner.

I expressed my love of baking and it turned out that Peter had a bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips and all of the ingredients to make cookies!  So we made a batch and even though something was off with the butter, they were delicious.  I haven't had fresh cookies in so long.

The hostel I'm staying in is pretty nice and I got to sleep in - without setting an alarm - for the first time in a long time.  So nice.  It's raining today so I'm not sure what we'll find to do... probably just hanging out and hopefully getting a good chunk of my homework finished before heading back to Paris.

I'm really excited to upload and edit all of my photos and to share them, too!  I've been so blessed to have seen and experienced so many cool things on this trip!  On Friday, I climbed around inside of a bubble!

being a berliner.

I wouldn't call myself a Berliner yet.  I'm still on the fence and haven't decided if I like the city yet... It's intriguing, but something about it feels a little off.

We drove back to Stuttgart on Sunday afternoon, after checking out the festival in Dinkelsbuhl.  Our first stop was teh Mercedes Museum, which was pretty cool.  Although I was definitely more interested in the building than the cars, although the cars were cool too.  After that we went to Weissenhof which is a housing project designed by the Bauhuas architects - my first Le Corbusier building!

After checking into our hostel we found a German restaurant nearby and I called it an early night.  The next morning was shopping in Stuttgart.  Which was really good.  Tons of stores and everything is way cheaper than in Paris.  So I ended up with a few things :)  It was fun.

That afternoon we hopped on a flight to Berlin.  We arrived an hour and fifteen minutes later and managed to figure out the busses and s-bahn system to get to our hostel.  Our hostel is so great.  It's really big with nice facilities.  One of those places that would be great to meet people if you were traveling alone or new to a city.  We headed down to the city center for a later dinner and found a cafe to eat outside under big square umbrellas.

Today felt like a really long day.  We walked all day and didn't seem to cover that much ground.  We did make it to the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind, Topography of Terror, The GSW Headquarters, and Checkpoint Charlie.  Now, I'm exhausted.  But unfortunately I have studio work that needs doing :( 

dinkelsbühl

This is such an amazing place.  I've never been somewhere that feels so fake yet so perfect, all at once.  I wish I had a way to upload photos because words can't describe how cool Dinkelsbühl, Germany is.

Last night we arrived at were welcomed by Randy and Andi, two of Prof. Schachman's friends who live in the city.  (Randy used to teach at IIT).  They made a delicious German meal for us, including sausage, potatoes, bread, cheese, and sauerkraut.  Plus a plum cake for dessert.  And I even tried a Radler, which is a beer (brewed right here in Dinkelsbühl)  mixed with a lemon soda.  It was such a fun night of just relaxing, talking, and having a good time.  Randy and Andi have a cozy back yard garden which butts right up against the city wall.

This morning I woke up early and did a little exploring on my own.  Then grabbed a cappuccino before we headed out on our tour.  Randy is an official trained Dinkelsbühl tour guide (plus he's an architect) so we learned a ton about the city.  We stopped midway at a Biergarten and I had an Afri-Cola which is like Coke with lemon.  And super carbonated.

After the tour we went to the Dinkelsbühl "beach."  It was just a park alongside the river where kids played in the water and families hung out in the sun.  We had delicious sausage and french fries for only 2.80 Euros!  So good.  We even played some beach volley ball.  Perfect.

I did some more exploring on my own and this time walked along the city wall for a while.  I found a bridge that looked like it belonged at Hogwarts, and a cat!  It came right up to me and let me pet it.  And it stuck with me as I kept walking!  I tried French and English but I'm guessing it only knows German.  And I have no idea how to say cat in German.  I really have no idea how to say anything in German.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Stuttgart and I'll be really sad to leave Dinkelsbühl.  It's such a cool place.  Romantic too.  I'd love to come back here someday...

stuttgart, germany

Made it safely to Stuttgart, Germany!  Despite the rain and the early morning, it's pretty great so far!  None of us speak any German so everything is an adventure.  For lunch we ended up at an Italian restaurant, with a menu in Italian and German.  Neither were helpful for us.  I ended up ordering Fettucini alla Rossini, hoping I would get something good.  It turned out to be fettucini was a tomato sauce and steak on top!  So good.

It's crazy because being here makes Paris feel like home.  We keep slipping into French and then remembering, "shoot, merci and oui are not the right words for this situation!"  But I have noticed there is way more English here (on signs and such) than in Paris, so that's kind of nice.

Tonight we'll be driving to a small walled in city called Dinkelsbuhl for a couple of nights.  Should be fun!

germany in the morning!

The past week has been crazy.  It felt like second year all over again.  We spent all weekend in studio working on a HUGE model.  It's hard to explain the intensity of this model with words, so I'll post some photos when it starts coming together more.  But the point of the story is that I haven't gotten out much because school work has been overwhelming.

I did get the chance to see a little bit more of Paris through classwork, though!  The best part of school is that we really use Paris to learn.  Most of our assignments involve visiting different sites around the city.  This past week we went to see the Memorial for the Martyrs of the Deportation, The Grande Mosquee de Paris, the Promenade Plantee and le Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, to name a few.

Part of the memorial

A view of the Ile de Cite from the Ile de St Louis

Mosaic at the Grande Mosquee de Paris

A manmade cave in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

A building cut in half by the Promenade Plantee

In the morning we'll be on a train at 7h24 on route to Stuttgart, Germany!  I'm so excited to experience a new country, a bunch of new cities and to just get away for a few days!  I'll (hopefully) be posting a few blogs while I'm there, sharing a some of my adventures.  I'm packing light and not bringing my card reader, so photos will have to wait until I get back :)